Most mornings, we gather together after chores and breakfast to pray for the “Fourteen P’s,” a list of requests that, over the years, we’ve managed to finagle all beginning with “P” (pope, president, priest, papa, pets, etc.). I also read something: perhaps a passage of Scripture or prayer to memorize, sometimes a saint’s biography or section of the children’s catechism. Now, it is short, child-sized teachings from Laudato Si.
Openness to life involves suffering with happiness. In our family’s case, the suffering usually has a name: cystic fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is a genetic disorder that occurs when both parents pass on the mutated gene to their child. This occurs at the moment of conception and is a one in four chance with each pregnancy. It has happened to my husband and me twice with seven children. Some have wondered why we would bring more children into the world to suffer and die but the truth is that every single person is born to a life of joys, sufferings, then death.